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BEIJING, Aug. 30-- Washington will not release its disputed Middle East peace plan before the Israeli election in mid-September, said Jason Greenblatt, U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy for international negotiations, on Wednesday. The plan, also known as the "Deal of the Century," may well fail to recognize a two-state solution. Palestine has repeatedly voiced opposition, pointing to Washington's heavily tilted position toward Israel. The West has a long record of interference in the region. After the First World War, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Western countries, mainly Britain and France, made a reckless deal and redrew the map of the Middle East. Ignorance of history, however, cost these powers dearly, when local calls for independence and conflicts among ethnic groups rumbled on. Now on the fractured land, armed conflicts continue and terrorism is far from uprooted. Still, a band of outsiders have been contending for clout in the region. The regional landscape of geo-politics is changing, defined by power games, strategic hedging, and exchanges of interests. The Syrian civil war is a microcosm of regional turbulence. It resulted from a destructive mix of religious, historical, political and economic factors, with interference on the part of major countries in other parts of the world, such as the United States. Washington's actions have haunted the Middle East. A U.S.-led coalition started the Iraq War in 2003. Rather than the building of a so-called democracy model as the West promoted, only a protracted war remains and extreme groups like the Islamic State rise, plaguing the land. | 
